The fickle finger of revenue

Have local authorities grasped the financial risks that come with managing bus services?

Roger French

24 June 2016

Roger French OBE DL ran Brighton & Hove’s award-winning bus network for 30 years until his retirement in 2013. He is now a full-time bus and train passenger travelling extensively throughout the UK.

Allow me a bit of a reminisce, to almost 30 years ago when we concluded the successful management buy-out of Brighton & Hove from the National Bus Company. It really was exciting; after working for someone else for many years suddenly the buck stopped with a team of five of us. But it was also a scary time with responsibilities to provide a livelihood for hundreds of employees and run a comprehensive high profile bus network attracting thousands of people to use buses to travel around every...